We live in a world where what is real and what is fake news comes into direct conflict. Just because someone says something is fake news doesn’t make it so. You need an independent voice free from corporate and political control that can give you the facts you need. That would be KZ88. Independent. Local. Factual...the Real Stuff. Listen. Support. Donate. Volunteer. Be a part of reality. Don’t be a slave to alternate facts. Be a true American.

What we need for 2018!

Transmitter Site Electric - Bet you didn’t know that even in January our transmitter requires air conditioning. Not as much, of course, but it still has to be running to keep the equipment at a happy temperature. In the winter months it takes about $300 per month to run the transmitter, audio equipment and keep things at a suitable temperature. If you’d like to specifically help with this expense you can make a check payable to Intercounty Electric Coop. They’re the electric provider at the transmitter site. You can send the check to us or to the coop directly. The account is under Real Community Radio Network. Our address is 1211 Ozark Street, Cabool, MO 65689. Their address is Intercounty Electric Coop, PO Box 209 Licking, MO 65542.

Studio Utilities - Our studio and offices are located in Cabool. The studio uses about $200 per month in utilities on average. We do use wood heat as possible to cut expenses. But again equipment must be at a suitable temperature for proper operation. Our utility supplier in Cabool is the City of Cabool. You can make a check payable to them if you’d like. Our account number is 5013000 and is for 1211 Ozark Street in Cabool. You can send the check to us or to the city directly. Their address is City of Cabool Utility Service, P.O. Box 710, Cabool, MO 65689. We’re serious about the wood heat. We’d appreciate donations of firewood. It should be split and have a length not over 24 inches.

Programming Licensing and Use Fees - Programs do cost money. Thankfully not anywhere near as much as NPR stations pay. It still works out to about $1800 per year or about $150 per month. This covers live shows such as Democracy Now! and most other programs from the Pacifica network and other community radio stations. If you’d like you can make a check payable to Pacifica Network. You can send the check to us or directly to Pacifica at Pacifica Affiliate Network,C/O KHOI Radio,410 Douglas Ave, Ames, IA 50010. If you send the check to Pacifica please note that it is for affiliate KZGM in Cabool, MO

Music Licensing Fees - There is a licensing fee for use of music on radio stations. We have to pay it like every other station. That way songwriters and composers are compensated for their work. To complicate matters there are three licensing agencies and all three have to be paid to use their music. They are BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. If you’d like to help us with this expense memo your check to indicate music licensing or simply make your check out to one of the agencies. BMI and ASCAP cost about $100 per month each. SESAC is about $30 per month. So we’re needing about $230 per month. (Or $2760 for the year.)

Tower site land Lease - Although we own our tower. We don’t own the land where it is located. Strange as it sounds this is a very common arrangement when it comes to towers. In our case we have an advantage as our lease is with the people who live on the property. This gives us a great deal more security than an isolated tower site. And they have big dogs. The lease cost is $100 per month.($1200 per year) The downside is that if we default on lease payments we could lose the tower as a result. You can send us a check marked tower lease to help out. If you’d like to pay the lease payment directly to the property owners please contact us for their information as there would be privacy issues in publishing it here.

Studio Rent - For the last 9 years the building owner of our studio location has been very supportive of the station. However after this length of time asking the station for rent is certainly not unreasonable. Rent for this sized business property in Cabool with utilities not included averages $350 per month or $4200 per year. If you can help us out with that send us a check or if you’d like to make a rent payment directly to the property owner contact us for their information as there are privacy issues in publishing it here. There is also an option to purchase the building.

Maintenance - CD Players - Our Denon professional Cd players have just about reached the end of their useful life. Parts are difficult to obtain and they just don’t work consistently. That should be a surprise as they’ve basically been on non-stop since 2009. They would cost about $400 each to replace. yes, that’s a lot. They are professional machines with auto cue, remote start and stop, XLR audio connections and remote control. If you’re an audio person and would like to simply buy the machines and donate them we can give you specs. Otherwise send us a check marked CD players and we’ll get things started.

Maintenance - Transmitter - Our transmitter was brand new in 2009. We’re rapidly approaching 10 years of solid use. Our transmitter is a Broadcast Electronics FMC 4. It’s solid state so there are no tubes. However it is in dire need of some replacement power supplies. I should mention that this transmitter cost almost $50,000. It now needs repairs and maintenance estimated at $6000. That is a bargain compared to a new transmitter. Interested in helping out? Contact us for more details.

Maintenance - Studio equipment - In addition to CD players mentioned above we need work on a satellite receiver, telemetry computer system, backup power supply, outdoor cat 5 cabling, and computers for editing audio and streaming our station online. These total up to about $1500. If you can help with this project send us a check for what you can or contact us if you’d like to simply buy the equipment and donate it to the station.

Web hosting server lease - We have a good deal on a server lease. The server is offsite for better security and better online speed and connections. This server handles our email system, web pages, and other digital based services like streaming and program distribution. Cost is $24.95 per month. You can send us a check if you’d like. If you’d like to make the check payable to the server owner put down “Green Geeks” as the payee. We’ll send them the check. It’s worth noting that the server has no data limits for us and that it is powered entirely by wind and solar energy.

Weather Software Licensing/detection equipment - You know the great job we do with severe weather coverage. Well, the license fee needs to be paid to keep up the coverage. The fee allows us to share our radar image online, share current conditions, offer instant weather warnings online and by text (faster than a weather radio), and to provide the high resolution level 2 radar imagery for our live coverage and online. The cost is $300. Please chip in and help us out with this! You can send us a check or donate online for this item.

Remote broadcast wireless service - This is what we use for live coverage of events and sports in the area. The equipment is paid for. The service is not. The cost is $33.40 per month. If you’d prefer you can make this purchase online on our behalf.

Fax Interface box - This is a twist on the above. In this case the service is paid for, but the device is not. We need a Obihai model 100 interface box for our fax machine. It’s a one time expense. It’s not all that expensive, but in the list of priorities it falls way down the list. Cost is $49. You are welcome to buy one for us if you’d rather.

The Future - There are a lot of opportunities for making community radio better and stronger. We have an opportunity to double our transmitting power, but that would require a new transmitter and and new transmitting antenna. For now that’s dreaming. It’s coming upon time for our tower to be inspected and checking plumb and guywires. We can probably put that off a year or two but it will be about $5000 and it will eventually have to be done. Once we get the expenses above paid for we can start working on improvements...in the future. Questions? Call or email us. Thanks for your support of locally owned and operated community radio!

Insurance - This insurance covers the equipment owned by the station and provides liability insurance for events and volunteers while at the station or transmitter site. The cost is $600 per month. ($7200 per year). Yep, it costs a lot. If you can help us out with the insurance costs we would gladly appreciate it. Send us a check marked “insurance”. If you’d rather pay the insurer directly please contact us as we generally change companies annually based on pricing.

It’s January. Let’s get serious about supporting community radio KZ88. Here’s what we need: